Midland in Tewkesbury

[daifly]

20 minutes ago, Tricky said:

Not sure I'm up to speed on the competition?! I will be demo-ing again hoepfully next year if they will have me. It was great fun!

And your building and painting advice and explanations were invaluable so thank you again from me. (and thanks for the hut - it has a new home earmarked.)

Dave

[Tricky]

38 minutes ago, daifly said:

And your building and painting advice and explanations were invaluable so thank you again from me. (and thanks for the hut - it has a new home earmarked.)

Dave

Don’t forget to use the voucher!

[Dave Hunt]

It was good to see you at Stafford, Richard, and to have a couple of chat sessions. I hope that it was remunerative for you.

 

Dave 

[Tricky]

38 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

It was good to see you at Stafford, Richard, and to have a couple of chat sessions. I hope that it was remunerative for you.

 

Dave 

Good to see you too Dave. It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend! 

[Tricky]

14 hours ago, t-b-g said:

I am so pleased to see this project up and running again.

 

It is a delightful little scene.

 

Perhaps an entry into the small layout competition at Stafford next year might encourage you to stick with it?

 

 

Thanks Tony - as I recall the original inspiration was yours! 

[t-b-g]

7 minutes ago, Tricky said:

Thanks Tony - as I recall the original inspiration was yours! 

 

I do recall mentioning it as a possible prototype idea for a small layout. Another reason I am glad to see it again.

 

I haven't achieved very much on any of my own projects in the 4 years since you started Tewkesbury so I won't be saying anything about your lack of progress in that time!

[Dave Hunt]

A few years ago there was a Midland Railway Society weekend tour based in Gloucester and we visited Tewkesbury. I remember thinking what a lovely basis it would provide for a small layout and it seems I’m not the only one. I agree that Richard should finish his project and enter it next year; if it’s up to his usual standard it should top the bill.

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

Should anybody fancy modelling Tewkesbury's first station from a different angle, here's a piece of inspiration:

 

 

[Embedded link to catalogue thumbnail of MRSC 63264.]

[Tricky]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Should anybody fancy modelling Tewkesbury's first station from a different angle, here's a piece of inspiration:

 

 

[Embedded link to catalogue thumbnail of MRSC 63264.]

Forgive me if I speak out of turn - wasn't there some debate if this is in fact Tewks? I seem to recall someone saying the stone archway didn't correspond somehow?

[Compound2632]

17 minutes ago, Tricky said:

Forgive me if I speak out of turn - wasn't there some debate if this is in fact Tewks? I seem to recall someone saying the stone archway didn't correspond somehow?

 

The caption on the MRSC online catalogue says it had been disputed whether the location was Lancaster or Tewkesbury - the engine is an ex-North Western Railway 2-2-2WT - but "That it is Tewkesbury has been confirmed by comparison with Aerofilms views of the old station frontage taken in 1928".

 

I have seen online but cannot now quickly find a digitised version of a published book of plans relating to the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway by its engineer, William Moorsom, which I think included the street elevation of the station, as seen in the photo, but I may be mis-remembering this.

 

Also, it's unclear to me, from the history and geography of the NWR and L&CR in Lancaster, where in Lancaster this might be supposed to be, whereas it appears to be a good fit to Tewkesbury, looking at the 1883 25" OS map: https://maps.nls.uk/view/109723185. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Compound2632

[lezz01]

It's Definitely Tewkesbury.

You can see by the drawings that it's this building.

Regards Lez.

[Compound2632]

39 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

It's Definitely Tewkesbury.

 

Thanks. Good to know I wasn't dreaming! Those are from the book I was thinking of: S.C. Brees' Railway Practice. But as the Tewkesbury branch opened in 1840, they are presumably from a later edition than those of 1836 and 1838 i find listed online.

 

I think this must have been the inspiration for the Eurostar check-in at Gare du Nord, where, having entered the station at platform level, you have to go up to a gallery over the concourse before descending to platform level again. I wonder if there were many complaints from Bath chair users etc.?

Edited September 6, 2023 by Compound2632

[lezz01]

Originally Tewkesbury was built for horse drawn trains so some of the track layout is sketchy to say the least. The fact is that the railway kind of ignored that they wern't supposed to bring locos into the station area and the branch was loco drawn down as far as Quay Street as soon as it was felt that they could get away with it and indeed the prohibition was lifted. The opening of the second station when the branch was extended to Malvern Wells changed everything and the old station was used as a storage loop until the tracks were lifted leaving just the shed area in operation. 

I'm planning to build the other end of the station in the first phase of Tewkesbury shed and Quay branch. The station roof may or may not be hiding the fiddle yard. The second phase, if there is one, may see the old station, High Street and Quay Street modelled whether or not I eventually build it all the way down to the end of the quay is another matter. The problem is that from Quay Street down the branch was gravity shunted down over the bridge at the end of Quay Street which wasn't up to the job of holding the weight of a loco so it was gravity down 3 at a time and horse back up one at a time into the loop outside the brewery. In later years they used a tractor to shunt the quay and take wagons back up to Quay street. The other problem is the point work at one end of the quay itself is very very complicated with a turnout superimposed on a scissors and whilst I consider myself reasonably good at track building that may be a formation too far beyond my skills. The biggest problem however is the one of me getting my finger out and cracking on with the damn thing in the first place.

Regards Lez.            

[Tricky]

Todays update. I’m on a roll!

 

This area in front of the mill has always troubled me:

 

I’ve never been too happy with either the composition or quality, so it had to go.

 

I found this photo:

 

Which has far better composition (as it’s real!), has the mill in the background and a bit of water. So I chopped out the existing and cleaned up the area. 
Then I cut a wedge-shaped piece of ply to build out the trackbed edge, glued on some spacers and then glued on the wedge. 

 

[Tricky]

I then started the row of upright timbers and rail as seen in the photo of the mill, by chopping up a few lengths of square maple, sticking down to graph paper with double sided tape, adding the rail and resin bolts. A coat of primer last and it will be ready for painting tomorrow. 
 

 

The last job today was to cut another wedge-shaped bit of ply to fill in the gap between baseboards, as the track here is on a gradient. 

 

[Tricky]

Modest progress today, not worth a photo but progress none the less!

 

On a secondary note, does anyone have dimensioned drawings of Midland Railway wooden notice boards?

[Compound2632]

37 minutes ago, Tricky said:

On a secondary note, does anyone have dimensioned drawings of Midland Railway wooden notice boards?

 

In Midland style. If you don't have a copy, I can PM you a scan.

[brossard]

On 05/09/2023 at 09:26, Tricky said:

True to my word, I spent a bit of time in Tewks this morning - I just hope I can keep it up! 
So the first job was to check everything still works electrically, and surprisingly it wasn’t too bad. A couple of loose wires and possibly a dodgy tortoise but apart from that all sound. I gave the rail tops a good clean as well so it feels like it really is under way! 
One slightly odd thing - any ideas why the controller doesn’t work? Definitely power to the rails…? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yikes!  That wiring is scary!  I hope you have got that sorted.

 

I just spent the last two weeks redoing my wiring.  I won't bore you with details but if you are interested in knowing more, you can check out my thread:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/147800-balmoral-road-exporail-is-over-and-i-can-relax-a-bit/page/8/

 

The wiring saga starts at 26 August.

 

Here's pic of my most recently completed board:

 

 

The layout is DCC (I use NCE).  Note the Tortoise has an edge connector specifically designed for it and has screw terminals, making it exactly equivalent to Cobalt.  That's a Wabbit stationary decoder next to it.  The blue and yellow wires are connected to momentary push buttons on the fascia (both sides) for throwing the turnout (I hate futzing with the throttle trying to get turnouts to operate).

 

Also of note are the "choc blocks" of which I have used probably hundreds on the layout.

 

Hope I'm not stepping on toes, but you did show the wiring.

 

John

[Tricky]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

In Midland style. If you don't have a copy, I can PM you a scan.

Ah yes, I knew I’d seen it somewhere! Thanks @Compound2632!

[Tricky]

1 hour ago, brossard said:

 

Yikes!  That wiring is scary!  I hope you have got that sorted.

 

I just spent the last two weeks redoing my wiring.  I won't bore you with details but if you are interested in knowing more, you can check out my thread:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/147800-balmoral-road-exporail-is-over-and-i-can-relax-a-bit/page/8/

 

The wiring saga starts at 26 August.

 

Here's pic of my most recently completed board:

 

 

The layout is DCC (I use NCE).  Note the Tortoise has an edge connector specifically designed for it and has screw terminals, making it exactly equivalent to Cobalt.  That's a Wabbit stationary decoder next to it.  The blue and yellow wires are connected to momentary push buttons on the fascia (both sides) for throwing the turnout (I hate futzing with the throttle trying to get turnouts to operate).

 

Also of note are the "choc blocks" of which I have used probably hundreds on the layout.

 

Hope I'm not stepping on toes, but you did show the wiring.

 

John

That’s very neat and puts mine to shame! I suppose I could replace joins with choc blocks? Any idea why the controller doesn’t come on?

[brossard]

10 minutes ago, Tricky said:

That’s very neat and puts mine to shame! I suppose I could replace joins with choc blocks? Any idea why the controller doesn’t come on?

 

I could reiterate the steps for getting the system up and running but I'm sure you've done that.  I haven't enough information to say for sure but I think you should start with untangling the wires.  Make sure every piece of track has droppers.  If you have a multimeter use the VAC setting to measure voltage on the rails, should be ~15V.  The throttle screen will go blank if there's a short.  The NCE fascia panel has two inputs but only one is valid, make sure you are using the right one.  Then there's the flat cable vs curly one, which has caught many people out, including myself.

 

John

[t-b-g]

I have a little question about the decision to change from radio control to DCC.

 

I have been visiting a friend today and running his fairly large O gauge garden railway, with worked quite nicely on radio control, to the point where I am considering trying it.

 

So I am interested in your decision to move away from it.

 

Did you encounter problems that you can share to guide my choice?

[Tricky]

9 hours ago, t-b-g said:

I have a little question about the decision to change from radio control to DCC.

 

I have been visiting a friend today and running his fairly large O gauge garden railway, with worked quite nicely on radio control, to the point where I am considering trying it.

 

So I am interested in your decision to move away from it.

 

Did you encounter problems that you can share to guide my choice?

My problem was that it wasn’t reliable and the batteries were too large. However, I am sure technology has moved on since then and indeed I don’t think I used the best there was even back then. It was also a pain having to keep recharging, although again, I’m sure technology has also improved there too. 
In summary, I wouldn’t let my experience cloud your judgement! 

[Tricky]

Lest anyone should fear I have already slipped in my resolve to maintain some sort of progress on Tewks, I have managed to put together the revised water’s edge which I’m very pleased with. The wood piles need bedding in. I made a section of wall from my laser scraps box which was nice to begin using them after they’ve been hanging around for a while! I shall paint the brick and weather it before fitting. After which, I can begin to add varnish water. 
As an aside, I also dug out all of my rolling stock (which only amounts to about 25 wagons) to go through them one by one and repair/refurbish/restore as needed. 
 

 

[brossard]

Good to see.  I have ambitions of building a micro layout based on Scalescenes Canal dock kit (link below).  I've done the buildings in the kit and added a few more.  I haven't got anything done baseboard wise so I'm watching to see if there are ideas I can pilfer.

 

John